Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, the world’s number one Indian combination, were eliminated in the men’s doubles pre-quarterfinals of the All England Badminton Championships after losing in straight games to Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Bagas Maulana of Indonesia. On Thursday night, Satwik and Chirag were defeated 16-21 15-21 by the Indonesians, who were champions here in 2022. The top-seeded Indian shuttlers, who won the French Open last week, were unable to keep up the pressure on their opponents, the third seeds, and were defeated in just over an hour.
India’s Lakshya Sen defeated world number three Anders Antonsen in three games to advance to the quarterfinals, but an error-prone PV Sindhu fell in the women’s singles second round of the All England Championships.
Sen, the World No. 18 who finished second in the 2022 edition, fought back from a 2-8 hole in the decider after dropping the second game to defeat Antonsen, a three-time World championship medalist, 24-22, 11-21, 21-14, in a contentious second round match.
Earlier, Sindhu, a double Olympic medalist, appeared to be in good form as she fought hard against Korea’s world No. 1 An Se Young, but she was unable to control her blunders, falling 19-21, 11-21.